Suspect who was shot by Meriden officer after fatal baseball bat attack is identified
The Connecticut Office of the Inspector General has identified the suspect who beat a man to death with a baseball bat and then was fatally shot by a Meriden police officer over the weekend.
Body camera and dashcam footage from the incident was also released.
Officers responded to a home on Sagamore Road around 10 a.m. on Sunday after they received reports of an active domestic violence situation involving some type of weapon.
Officer Anthony Offiaeli was the first to arrive on scene and body camera footage shows him watching the suspect, now identified as 38-year-old Robert Lee Jenkins III, violently striking a victim in the head with a baseball bat.
In the body camera footage, Offiaeli tells Jenkins III to put the bat down four times, and Jenkins III continues beating the man. Offiaeli then fires multiple shots at Jenkins III. The man that Jenkins III was beating with the bat sustained severe injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Several rounds that Offiaeli fired struck Jenkins III, who dropped the bat and fell to the ground. Jenkins III was treated at the scene and taken to Hartford Hospital, where he died at 11:30 p.m. Sunday, according to the report.
Multiple neighbors told NBC Connecticut that the man Jenkins III beat to death with the bat was his father. However, his identity has not been released because Connecticut law prohibits the disclosure of the identity of certain victims of family violence crimes.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined Jenkins III’s cause of death multiple gunshot wounds to the torso, and ruled his manner of death a homicide, according to the inspector general.
An autopsy also determined the cause of death of the man who Jenkins III beat to death with the bat was blunt force head injuries, and his manner of death was also ruled a homicide.
The Office of the Inspector General, the Connecticut State Police Central District Major Crime Squad, the Meriden Police Department, and the New Haven Judicial District State’s Attorney’s Office continue to investigate the incident.
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